Traditionally, in the dibenzocycloheptene series of compounds, those with a piperidinylidene group in the 5-position have been considered to be without notable antipsychotic action. Recently, however, 3-cyanocyproheptadine, 3-trifluoromethylthiocyproheptadine, 3-trifluoromethylsulfonylcyproheptadine and analogs of the latter two compounds having a cycloalkyl-alkyl or hydroxy alkyl group on the piperidine nitrogen have been described as having antipsychotic activity.
It has now been found that trifluoromethyl-sulfinyl derivatives of cyproheptadine and analogs carrying a hydroxyalkyl or cycloalkylalkyl group on the piperidine nitrogen are also potent antipsychotic agents, with a low propensity to induce extrapyramidal side effects.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide novel compounds which are potent antipsychotic agents.
It is a further object of this invention to provide novel processes for the preparation of the novel compounds.
Another object of the invention is to provide novel pharmaceutical compositions comprising the novel compounds as active ingredient.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel method of treating psychoses by administration of the novel antipsychotic compounds or pharmaceutical compositions thereof to a patient.